I
Petra Marklund

About:

12 September 1984

Petra Linnea Paula Marklund was born in Stockholm. Her mother is Slovenian, who had a previous past of music and even entered in a Slovenian Music Contest, and a Swedish father, who is a professor of Space Physics. She has a sister who is a fashion designer. When Marklund was a child, her family used to call her the "September child", hence the title of her stage name, because she was born in September.

She started recording music in studios at the age of 12, but never commercially released any material. Then in 1998, Petra was discovered by Swedish producer and songwriter Hans Edler. She then recorded her first album Teen Queen, produced and written by Edler and released in 1999. However, the album was unsuccessful and didn't receive rave reviews. It wasn;t untill her single "La La La (Never Give It Up)" in 2003 she got noticed. Petra's second studio album, the Grammy's Award-winning album In Orbit, spawned the international hits "Satellites" and "Cry for You". In Sweden, Petra had her breakthrough with the Swedish-language single "Mikrofonkåt", originally performed by Swedish rapper Petter. It became her first number-one hit in her native country, held the top position for 11 consecutive weeks. It was included on the fourth September studio album, Love CPR (2011), which also hit number one in Sweden and subsequently became Petra's best selling album so far.

Petra released her first Swedish-language studio album, Inferno, in 2012 under her own name, to distinguish from September. She announced that this studio album would have no trace of her signature eurodance style, and stated the album will be "Dark... and personal" and also stated that there is musical traces of pop and hip hop. Next to her new career Petra was the host of Swedish sing-along show Allsång på Skansen in 2014 and 2015. She previously performed on the show as September in 2011 and under her own name in 2013. In 2014 she appears as backgroud vocalist in the Kent album Tigerdrottningen.

Follow-up album Ensam inte stark, also in Swedish, followed in November 2015. The album debuted at number eleven on the Swedish album chart. The album continued on the musical direction Petra chose for herzelf and was a dark and deep electronica album with themes of sadness, loneliness, disappointment and heartbreak.

On the web:

- Petra's website: http://petramarklund.se/

What do we think:

DB: Petra is a great example that singing in your native tongue is sometimes the difference between mediocre pop and great music. When Petra switched from English to Swedish her music deepened, became artistically more interesting and she seems to stretch her vocal capacities. It also seems she doesn't want to be remembered to much for her September period. And right she is because Petra has much more to offer in Swedish. We are eager to here more from her and see where she is going.

If you like this, you probably like.. / european counterparts:

 

Albums:

♪♪♪ - Inferno - 2012

♪♪♪♪ - Ensam inte stark - 2015

Further listening: September (2004); In Orbit (2005); Dancing Shoes (2007); Love CPR (2011)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
♪♪♪♪♪ = outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided